Nodding Broomrape

A very variable species in flower colour, size, calyx dentation, bract size and shape etc. Two varieties, in addition to the type variety, are reported from the area.

Biennial or perennial, (10-) 15-30 (-40) cm tall, puberulous-glandulose to glabrate, simple, erect, pale brownish or purplish, sometimes thickened and short, whitish-puberulous; scales ovate to lanceolate, acuminate. Spikes (7-) 10-20 (-25) cm long, often densely many flowered. Bracts ovate to lanceolate, shorter or as long as the corolla, broad to narrow; bracteoles absent. Calyx ± half as long as the corolla, divided completely at the back to 2-segments; each lateral segment 2-fid to sometimes almost entire, very variable, teeth ± as long as the tube or shorter. Corolla (12-) 15-20 mm long, usually conspicuously curved, glabrous to puberulous above, tubulose; tube often whitish or pale, hardly to slightly inflated below; limb shortly lobed, bluish, sometimes violaceous to brownish, irregularly toothed to subentire. Stamens inserted ± at the middle of corolla-tube; filaments glabrous to pubescent at the base; anthers nearly glabrous to puberulous. Capsules suborbicular, 5-7mm long; stigma usually darker, bilobed.

Herbs annual, biennial, or perennial, 15-35(-40) cm tall, densely glandular pubescent, usually with branched fleshy roots. Stems unbranched. Leaves deltate-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 1-1.5 cm X 5-7 mm, along with bracts, calyx, and corolla densely glandular pubescent abaxially, glabrescent adaxially. Inflorescences spicate, 5-20(-30) cm; bract ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 1-1.5 cm X 5-6 mm; bractlets absent. Calyx campanulate, 1-1.2 cm, irregularly 2-parted to base; segments 2-lobed, rarely entire; lobes linear, 2 longer than others. Corolla 1-2.2 cm; tube pale yellow or dark blue-purple, distinctly enlarged, turned into a rounded curve or suberect, constricted upward; upper lip 2-lobed; lower lip slightly shorter than upper; lobes pale purple or pale blue, subrounded. Filaments 7-9 mm, glabrous or pubescent basally; anthers ovoid, 1-1.2 mm, glabrous. Ovary ovoid-oblong. Style 6-8 mm; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule oblong or oblong-ellipsoid, 1-1.2 cm X 5-7 mm. Seeds long ellipsoid, 0.4-0.5 X ca. 0.2 mm.

Gansu, Hebei, W Jilin, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, W Xizang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia, Europe].

Grasslands, slopes, forests, roadsides; 500-3000 m.